Israeli strikes hit Beirut, cut Syria crossing
The blasts in the Beirut suburbs sent huge plumes of smoke and flames into the night sky and shook buildings km (miles) away in the Lebanese capital
AP
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Iran is Hezbollah's main backer and has sent weapons and billions of dollars to the group over the years.PHOTO:AP
Beirut,4 Oct
Israel
carried out a series of massive airstrikes overnight in southern suburbs of
Beirut and another that cut off the main border crossing between Lebanon and
Syria, a main crossing point for tens of thousands of people fleeing Israeli
bombardment.
The blasts
in the Beirut suburbs sent huge plumes of smoke and flames into the night sky
and shook buildings km (miles) away in the Lebanese capital. The Israeli
military did not immediately comment on what the intended target was, and there
was no information immediately available on casualties. Lebanon's state-run
National News Agency reported there were more than 10 consecutive airstrikes in
the area.
The Israeli
military said Friday that a strike in Beirut the day before killed Mohammed
Rashid Skafi, the head of Hezbollah's communications division. The military
said in a statement that Skafi was “a senior Hezbollah terrorist who was
responsible for the communications unit since 2000” and was “closely
affiliated” with high-up Hezbollah officials.
Friday's
strike about 60 km (37 miles) to the east along the Lebanon-Syria border led to
the closure of the road near the busy Masnaa Border Crossing.
Associated
Press video footage showed two huge craters on each side of the road. People
disembarked cars unable to pass the site of the strike, carrying bags of their
possessions as they crossed on foot.
Tens of
thousands of people fleeing war in Lebanon have crossed into Syria over the
past two weeks there.
The
airstrike came a day after an Israeli military spokesperson said Hezbollah has
been trying to transport military equipment through the border crossing.
Hezbollah
is believed to have received much of its weaponry from Iran via Syria. The
group has a presence on both sides of the border, a region where it has been
fighting alongside Syrian President Bashar Assad's forces.
The new
wave of strikes came after Israel warned people to evacuate communities in
southern Lebanon that are outside a United Nations-declared buffer zone, as the
yearlong conflict between Israel and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah
escalates.
Israel
launched a ground incursion into Lebanon on Tuesday and its forces have been
clashing with Hezbollah militants in a narrow strip along the border. A series
of attacks before the incursion killed some of the group's key members,
including longtime leader Hassan Nasrallah.
Iran's
Foreign Minister, Abbas Araghchi, arrived Friday in Beirut, where he was
expected to discuss the war between Israel and Hezbollah with Lebanese
officials.
Araghchi's
visit to Beirut came three days after Iran launched at least 180 missiles into
Israel, the latest in a series of rapidly escalating attacks that threaten to
push the Middle East closer to a region-wide war.
Iran is
Hezbollah's main backer and has sent weapons and billions of dollars to the
group over the years.
In the
Iranian capital, Tehran, the country's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei
led Friday prayers and delivered a speech where he praised the country's recent
missile strike on Israel and said Iran was prepared to conduct more strikes if
needed.
He spoke to
thousands of people at the capital's main prayer site, the Mosalla mosque,
which was decorated with a huge Palestinian flag.
Friday's
strike at the border crossing was the first time this major border crossing has
been cut since the beginning of the war. Lebanese General Security recorded
256,614 Syrian citizens and 82,264 Lebanese citizens crossing into Syrian
territory between Sept 23 — when the Israel launched a heavy bombardment of
southern and eastern Lebanon — and Sept 30.
There are
half a dozen border crossings between the two countries and most of them remain
open. Lebanon's minister of public works said all border crossings between
Lebanon and Syria work under the supervision of the state.
Israel and
Hezbollah have traded fire across Lebanon's southern border almost daily since
the day after Hamas' cross-border attack on Oct 7, 2023, in which the militants
killed 1,200 Israelis and took 250 others hostage.
Meanwhile,
the Israeli army said it carried out a strike Thursday in Tulkarem, a militant
stronghold in the occupied West Bank, in coordination with the Shin Bet
internal security service.
The
Palestinian Health Ministry said 18 people were killed in an Israeli strike on
a refugee camp there.
Violence
has flared across the Israeli-occupied territory since the Israel-Hamas war
erupted in October 2023. Tulkarem and other northern cities have seen some of
the worst violence.
Israel
declared war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip in response to their Oct 7 attack. More
than 41,000 Palestinians have since been killed in the territory, and just over
half the dead have been women and children, according to local health
officials. Nearly 2,000 people have been killed in Lebanon in that time, most
of them since Sept 23, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry. -AP
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